The Red Balloon

A short film set in Paris. A boy on his way to school finds a red balloon tied to a lamppost. He takes it with him. The balloon is not ordinary. It follows him, waits at doors, comes when called and returns when he walks away. The film never explains this. From there the narrative follows one day. They are not allowed on the bus, the headmaster shuts the balloon away at school, there is trouble at church, and in the rain other people's umbrellas shelter it. Then the boys of the neighbourhood want the balloon. A chase begins. There is almost no speech. The narrative runs entirely on image: stone streets, stairways, grey walls and one red. What the narrative is interested in is not a fantastical object but loneliness: the boy speaks to nobody and his only friend is a thing. It was shot in the Ménilmontant district of Paris; those streets and stairways have largely changed since, and the film stands as a record of that quarter. The balloon was moved with invisible threads and by hand; there is no computer, the trick is only framing and patience. The director's son Pascal Lamorisse plays the boy. It runs under thirty-five minutes. Albert Lamorisse directed. The film won the short film prize at Cannes and an Academy Award for original screenplay; it remains the only short to win in that category. Who it is for: anyone who likes classics to watch with children and storytelling without words. Who it is not for: anyone looking for pace; the film is slow and its ending may be sad for small children.